Horizons SRVs should be SOLAR powered

Fair enough, but your OP said you hated spending time looking for materials to refuel your SRV (which by the way is exploration...), so your fix for this is then going to be looking for planets that are close enough to the sun, allow for planetfall, then landing on said planet (which can be quite hazardous in high G situations) and then refuel using solar panels. Personally I would just stick to picking up rocks mate!

This would be terribly tedious, far worse than the current situation... The current situation being that with even the slightest understanding of the material system you never ever ever have to worry about fueling your SRV ever again. OP's suggestion is terrible.
 
This is a dumb conversation about a dumb mechanic. SRVs would logically be either fuelled from the ship fuel store or electrically charged from the ship power plant. Materials would be collected to supply the AFMU for ship repairs and SRV hangar for SRV repair. The SRV would be automatically repaired every time it docks back at the ship --if the materials suffice.

Anything else is mini-game for the sake of mini-game and does not in any way help build a consistent world experience.

Mini game, Mini game, Mini game, I hate them. I also think that the SRV should be able to refuel from the ship, but maybe have a delay on filling. To stop players just calling their ships down to refill each time, but it gives you more time to find martials when needed.

Scooping martials is fine but having to shoot rocks and then chasing them all over the place is not. Better if you could scan a planet to see what surface martial is in each area (like the soil) and scoop it up and let your synthesis sort it out.
 
I think SRVs should be SOLAR powered, not taken back to the Flintstones where Barny Rebel is breaking rocks over his head to provide power to his Taradactle lawnmower.


4000ly Years away from SOL and my SRVs are 90% of the time looking for the right rock for fuel or the right rocks for the ammo.
Today i spent the entire time looking for the right fuel rocks 1/8th of fuel left and had to return to the ship with no rocks to make fuel. Now i am thinking, OMG i have three SRVS left what if they all fall down to the same issue.

Please, can we have SRVs that are purely for Exploration, take the weapons off and lets have Solar panels. I want to explore in them 10,000ly years away from SOL not spend days mining in them.

Or it should be able to also fuel from the ship. :)
 
On the contrary, having increased fuel tank capacity during beta, I think FD should probably nerf it a bit again. Fuel should always be a nagging worry for planetary explorers, just as it is for deep space explorers. As it is, the basic phosporous & sulphur components just stack up to the point where you don't even need to bother to check whether you have enough in reserve.... As for the premium refuel with 100% efficiency - it's just never required, so what's the point?

As an alternative, radically increase fuel consumption for driving at high speed or constantly using thrusters - which I don't notice happening - This at least would bring a bit of realism.
 
Transfer fuel that you scoop with your ship into your SRV? Not sure why that isn't a thing. Or a solar panel that can stockpile fuel if on a surface and in sunlight. Would work similar to a fuel scoop, only you just have to sit there in the light for a bit.
 
Solar power is not a good idea. On the outer planets, there is not much sunlight. In BH systems, you would be out of luck.

I think what would be reasonable is:
- SRV has a mini fusion plant and replenishes it's supply from the ship's main tank
- SRV does not use kinetic weapons, but pulse lasers

I wonder whose idea it was to create an SRV with ammo that has to be replenished.
 
You wont be exploring much if you're a good distance from the sun or want to explore the dark side of a tidally locked planet or moon..
I guess batteries is a forgotten science in the future..

And since you can refuel your ship at a star, why not your SRV at the same time..?
 
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LOL... This is a fiction game they don't have to provide realism for Solar array in size or the power it can supply. Just as they are far fetched to suggest breaking a few rocks will provide enough fuel for SRVs, they can be far fetched to suggest we don't need big Solar arrays :). OMG we have Fuel scoops, fiction space ships, Plasma weapons, people landing on planets 4000ly years away from Earth, is this realism :) ? Please, i am begging you, please stop making me laugh.
Sorry but you just lost your argument there. So what you're actually asking for is a limitless source of power for the SRV because you don't want to be bothered with using the current game mechanism.

I have to agree with others who say that materials for SRV refueling are fairly abundant. After collecting enough for 20 refills, I've been dumping or ignoring them.
 
If FD can change the "FUEL" text to "BATTERY" for solar panels and do a few modifications for making fuel crafting be more like power crafting, that would be nice. Of course, instead of replacing SRV fuel tanks with batteries, at least have a customization feature where you can pay a few credits to swap them.
 
Hmm, I am 4000 light years out and spending 90% of my time not collecting the Sulfur and Phosphorus I find.

If there are planets too far for solar panels, can be counted by there are plenty close to stars too
then that the planets you are on not having S+P can be countered by there are plenty of planets with S+P
Same for batteries and stockpiles

Also removing the Dual repeaters and replacing them with a Solar array would mean you would be unable to collect anything but canisters.
No materials, No Meta Alloys or anything else that might be out there today or tomorrow
 
Sorry but you just lost your argument there. So what you're actually asking for is a limitless source of power for the SRV because you don't want to be bothered with using the current game mechanism.

I have to agree with others who say that materials for SRV refueling are fairly abundant. After collecting enough for 20 refills, I've been dumping or ignoring them.

Again someone else who jumps in the debate without reading the OP.
I suggested to introduce SRVs that are purely for Exploration. I don't ask for those that like blowing little rocks up all day and are fascinated by it to have their rmining SRVs removed, i suggested introduce another SRV for exploration that can use another fuel source, so those that explore can go out and enjoy exploring in them at some distance.
 
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I think SRVs should be SOLAR powered, not taken back to the Flintstones where Barny Rebel is breaking rocks over his head to provide power to his [FONT=&]Taradactle[/FONT] lawnmower.


4000ly Years away from SOL and my SRVs are 90% of the time looking for the right rock for fuel or the right rocks for the ammo.
Today i spent the entire time looking for the right fuel rocks 1/8th of fuel left and had to return to the ship with no rocks to make fuel. Now i am thinking, OMG i have three SRVS left what if they all fall down to the same issue.

Please, can we have SRVs that are purely for Exploration, take the weapons off and lets have Solar panels. I want to explore in them 10,000ly years away from SOL not spend days mining in them.

Again someone else who jumps in the debate without reading the OP.
I suggested to introduce SRVs that are purely for Exploration, I don't ask for those that like blowing little rocks up all day and are fascinated by it to have their rmining SRVs removed, i suggested introduce another SRV for exploration that can use another fuel source.

You should have stated it better

The Title: SRVs should be SOLAR powered - seems a general broad all SRVS statement
First Paragraph: I think SRVs should be SOLAR powered - seems a general broad all SRVS statement

Only at the end you you suggest a different SRV that is solar powered for exploration.
 
I don't have horizons yet, so I can only conjecture and theorize here, but it seems to me that if we can power massive starships by sucking up hydrogen from a star, fueling a tiny little dune buggy should be child's play. Seems like the module used to carry the SRV should sensibly have some sort of refueling line while attached; I know I'd push to include such a feature, were I the designer of said vehicle.

I could picture fuel scooping dividing the fuel you got between your ship and any onboard SRV's, with some sort of priority panel for which is fueled first, like the module priorities. Being able to refuel your SRV planetside makes sense more as a backup plan; shooting rocks and synthesizing fuel in the field sounds more like an emergency survival method. I know we need mechanics to make planetary exploration interesting, but I can see why having to stop and gather rocks all the time would get tedious, especially for those players who never liked mining in the first place.

Maybe once planets have more to them or allow us to go deeper to explore, SRV upkeep will receive some alternatives. Would be awesome to see some more customization options for your SRV, wouldn't it? Imagine the possibilities of retrofitting your SRV on a similar level as your ships...
 
Mini game, Mini game, Mini game, I hate them. I also think that the SRV should be able to refuel from the ship, but maybe have a delay on filling. To stop players just calling their ships down to refill each time, but it gives you more time to find martials when needed.

Scooping martials is fine but having to shoot rocks and then chasing them all over the place is not. Better if you could scan a planet to see what surface martial is in each area (like the soil) and scoop it up and let your synthesis sort it out.

Absolutely. And shooting rocks: what is that all about? Why not have a core drill? You just use the radar to find an area rich in materials and drill down for a core sample to gather materials. It just needs something on the menu screen; the drill itself could be underneath the SRV so wouldn't need elaborate modelling.

This would actually allow for additional game play. If your drill sample comes up with a really rich material content, you could deploy an automatic mining unit on that spot (they are already modelled in the game, so no biggie to add). It also would allow customisation options: buy better drills that go deeper over time, that specialise in certain surfaces, and of course if you drive off without retracting it you can break the drill head.

But shooting rocks feels infantile.
 
Sorry but you just lost your argument there. So what you're actually asking for is a limitless source of power for the SRV because you don't want to be bothered with using the current game mechanism.

I have to agree with others who say that materials for SRV refueling are fairly abundant. After collecting enough for 20 refills, I've been dumping or ignoring them.

While I think that "solar powered" is a terrible idea, a limitless fuel tank for the SRV would be a perfectly acceptable to me. Due to the ridiculously plentiful nature of the refuel rocks in the game, having to refuel the SRV is just pointless. The only way to find risk in the SRV refueling mechanism would be to dispose of any refuel mats you have in storage and neglect to pick any up until the SRV announces that fuel levels are critical. And that would only present any danger if you were on a Metal Rich planet, due to the relative rarity of those mats on MR worlds. On any other world you could full throttle, go grab a snack, and still have plenty of time left to grab 2 or 3 refuels before your tank ran dry.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind freeing up the 5-10 slots that refuel mats perpetually use of my 300 limit. Either that or modify the Basic refuel recipe to require one of the mats in the Common or Rare categories that has a fairly frequent drop rate (so getting refuel mats would still be easy, but you wouldn't be guaranteed a refuel on every single landable planet in the game).
 
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